Is Pipe Smoking Fading Into History?

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warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,249
18,127
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
I have no need to see pipe smoker out and about in public, but it can be used as a gauge to determine how prevalent pipe smoking is in society as a whole.
If you saw me smoking in public, you'd consider me a cigarette smoker or, maybe a pipe smoker, possibly a cigar smoker. I've also been known to chew. I simply enjoy nicotine and smoke/chew as the desire moves me. If you need to label me, an abuser of nicotine would be the best choice.
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
10,038
41,044
RTP, NC. USA
Convenience. Around WWI, cigarettes took their place in history. I guess sucking down a pill was a lot easier. And with life getting more and more hectic, cigs replaced pipes. Good news is, with the generations of young people, enjoying their life at everybody else's cost is becoming normal. Of course, hard working young folks will still stick to cigs. But, there are those who live with 10 roommates in a studio, might pick up pipes. You know, can't afford clean clothes, but drink microbrew, and $5 coffee. Don't forget the organic weed!
 
If you think about 1960, two maybe three channels to watch at prime time. And Fred McMurray comes on as a stressed single father, a life lesson to teach in 30 minutes, suits, ties, classy, with a pipe.
While the Leave it Beaver fictional world was humorous… My Three Sons was a more serious show. And, dads of the age could relate… and, “maybe if I smoked a pipe like Fred…”
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Today with 40 million shows on, and dozens of different networks and apps competing for our eyes… people just aren’t as influenced.

By the 80’s, even smokers were annoyed by people smoking everywhere, all the time.

There may be more pipe smokers now than there has been in twenty years, but in Fred McMurray’s reign as pipe representative of 1960, we are still a mere ripple in the ocean.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,465
114,525
When I started back in '91, I had never met another pipe smoker until I introduced a high school teacher to it. After that it was another 25 years until I saw another one, and again, it was a handful of people that I introduced to it. Pipe smoking was falling by the way side long before I started.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,465
114,525
If you saw me smoking in public, you'd consider me a cigarette smoker or, maybe a pipe smoker, possibly a cigar smoker. I've also been known to chew. I simply enjoy nicotine and smoke/chew as the desire moves me. If you need to label me, an abuser of nicotine would be the best choice.
My habits and appearance exactly.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,594
I'd guess pipe smokers to be several million world wide, considering that there are billions of people on the planet, and pipe smoking is active in China and not unknown in India and Indonesia, and is still active in indigenous communities in North and South America. I don't think the pipe and pipe tobacco industry, and this Forums, could exist on just thousands worldwide. It could be as much as tens of million, still microscopic in terms of a world population of billions.
 

Lumbridge

(Pazuzu93)
Feb 16, 2020
754
2,741
Cascadia, U.S.
Compared to how things used to be, we're spoiled for choice these days with the huge array of tobacco blends and pipe options on the market. Despite online shopping choking out brick and mortar stores and the consolidation of the tobacco sales industry, we have more choice and variety than ever before. While pipe-smoking is certainly not as widespread as it used to be, it's definitely gotten nerdier with its resurgence in popularity and has become more of a niche hobby (while avoiding becoming altogether exclusive and elitist, but I digress). Younger people such as myself seek out old-fashioned hobbies such as pipe smoking because it seems novel and interesting (and because good tobacco is awesome) and of course, there are the hipsters who do it because they think it makes them look smart/interesting/unique/etc.

Consider the resurging prevalence of other "old timey" things like wet-shaving (and the industry that has grown around it). Is it a hipster fad, or are lots of people really just growing to prefer wet-shaving again? Both, I think. The industry boom will likely settle down over time, and I predict the same thing with pipe tobacco.

Together with the older dudes, are younger pipe smokers (and hipsters) enough to sustain the pipe and tobacco industry for decades to come? Only time will tell, but I expect that tobacco will get much more expensive in coming years regardless, especially when we factor in legislation and taxation.